godly meetings
by stareater22
Summary: Watanuki meets a god inside the train. XXXholic and Death Note crossover.


Title: godly meetings

Rating: PG-13 for hints of violence

Summary: Watanuki meets a _god_ inside the train. (XXXholic and Death Note crossover)

Warnings: Spoilers up to Volume 3 of Death Note and Volume 5 of XXXholic

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He felt the cold even before boarding the train.

Traces of black smoke made soft, inky patterns in the air before him, and he equivocated for a few seconds before deciding that, _yes_, he was late, and yes, he _had_ to board the train if he wanted to arrive at Yuuko-san's place in time to make dinner. Annoyed at the idea of having to endure another night of teasing and mind-twisting games with the witch, and grumbling - _oh god I'm never gonna be free of her clutches _- a little under his breath, he pushed aside all hesitation and slipped into the train before the doors started to close in on him. All of the seats were already occupied, and he grabbed the nearest sling for balance, careful to keep his head down and his gaze on the floor beneath him. With any luck, whatever spirit or spiritually-deficient human was with him on that train would take no notice and leave him in peace.

Having just spent the whole afternoon eating cakes with Himawari-chan in one of his favorite bakeshops, today was apparently not one of his lucky days.

After standing for five minutes unmolested, rocking and swaying awkwardly with the train's movement, he finally mustered the courage to lift his gaze up a little, casually scanning the passengers nearest to him, and with a sigh, relaxed for the first time since he entered the train station. The black smoke pervaded the whole station like incense in a temple, and though sensing it from time to time was normal, sensing that amount of pollution, of _dirt_, was quite unusual even for a person of his _sensitivities_. He was just settling into his small bubble of comfort when he noticed _him_ inside the train, standing a bit farther off than he was from the door.

A young man just a few year older than him perhaps, with reddish brown hair and an impeccable posture, standing in the middle of the train with his eyes gazing blindly at the passing blurs outside the train. He looked like a college student, one of the more popular ones who's always in the middle of large chattering crowds all vying for his attention. In a way, he reminded him a little of Doumeki, and would have registered that small stab of annoyance at the memory of his rival if not for the sheer shock of seeing the aura, the atmosphere surrounding the young man.

Doumeki, even with his bright, almost-blinding chi, could never live up to this guy's sheer _presence_.

The young man was surrounded by a transparent miasma of gray smoke - _why is it gray, Watanuki would ask Yuuko-san later on _- swirling in untranslatable patterns around his body. He felt...heavy, heavier than the gaze of that snake spirit a long time ago, heavy as if he was a whole world unto himself, carrying the burden of so many wishes, of so many _souls_.

There was a large, overhanging cloud of black smoke behind the young man, until he noticed that it wasn't smoke even, but a pair of large, black wings protruding from his back. Unlike the white wings he saw on that student just a few terms ago, this one didn't look anything like cosplay material, didn't even look like wings at first glance, but they almost felt like...

_Shit. He saw me looking at him_. Watanuki averted his gaze to stare back at the floor, mentally willing the train to move a little faster and get to the next station, where he would definitely step down and try to put as much distance between him and the young man as possible, Yuuko-san's dinner be damned. In a fit of uncontrollable curiosity, he surreptitiously peeked at the young man again, and had to suppress a gasp of surprise (later on, he would realize that he wasn't even surprised, he was horrified) at the sight of the thing standing behind the young man, behind those black, wing-like things.

Watanuki averted his gaze to stare back at the floor, mentally willing the train to move a little faster and get to the next station, where he would definitely step down and try to put as much distance between him and the young man as possible, Yuuko-san's dinner be damned. In a fit of uncontrollable curiosity, he surreptitiously peeked at the young man again, and had to suppress a gasp of surprise (later on, he would realize that he wasn't even surprised, he was ) at the sight of the standing behind the young man, behind those black, wing-like things. 

It was at this point that Watanuki abandoned all pretense of not having noticed the young man and stared openly at him with his mouth hanging slightly open.

It was...it was like a _monster_, the one that parents tried to frighten their children with at night, standing dark and humongous behind the young man, with large, bulging eyes and a perpetual grin - _his teeth looked like fangs! Watanuki would tell Yuuko-san afterwards - _set on his face. Watanuki was still trying to make sense of what kind of creature it was when he noticed the young man mutter something under his breath and saw the creature - _monster_ - answer something in return.

The young man turned to look at him again, looked at him clearly for the first time, his gaze somewhat curious rather than hostile. And Watanuki had this horrible feeling as if he were being judged, being weighted by a god of justice to see if he even deserved to live, and couldn't suppress a shiver running through his body at that cold, calculating gaze. The young man smirked a little before moving towards him, and Watanuki drew himself up to prepare for an attack until he realized that the train doors behind him were opening, and that the young man was merely on his way out. "You need to relax a little", he heard him say, and he turned to look past the open doors to see the young man still smiling slightly at him from the platform, the creature at his back giving a small wave of _bye-bye _before the train doors closed and moved out of the station.

Whew. Now that was close.

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"Are you sure?"

"**I think so, I could smell it from him, it's clearly _her_ scent**".

"Hnn..."

"**Heheheheh, so are you going to do anything about it, Light?" **

"Not for now, I won't. If he is what you say he is, and if _she_ is whom you say _she is_, I hardly think they'll meddle in my affairs. Especially if he has no idea of who I really am. _She _might _know_, but...right now, the most immediate threat to Kira is L, and that's where I have to focus my attention.

Although I won't forget our little meeting, boy-who-can-see-spirits.


End file.
